South West COVID cases continue to grow before long weekend cases are added to tally

The South West has reported 33 new cases of COVID on Monday as the State recorded another death from the current wave of Omicron.

It comes as the number of COVID exposure sites across the South West continues to grow - a number that is expected to climb in the days after the Labour Day long weekend.

The public holiday is the first time tourists have arrived in the region en masse from both interstate and overseas since the start of the pandemic more than two years ago.

A woman in her 40s with other underlying health conditions died with COVID as WA reported a further 2365 cases on Monday.

The woman’s death is the third fatality from WA’s current Omicron wave.

The 33 new South West cases on Monday take the region’s total active cases to 223.

There are currently 13,486 active cases of COVID-19 in WA.

Hospitalisations also increased, jumping from 26 people in hospital at 8pm Saturday, to 36 people in hospital with COVID-19 at 8pm Sunday. No cases are being treated in ICU.

The South West region now has almost 50 active public exposure sites, the Health Department continuing to advise people who visited these locations to monitor for symptoms and to get tested and isolate immediately if symptoms develop.

New locations include Subway Bunbury on Tuesday March 1 from 9am-12.30pm, The Rose Hotel on Tuesday March 1 from 6.30pm-8.30pm, McDonald’s Treendale on Wednesday March 2 from 3.20pm-3.40pm, and Margaret River HEART Cinema on Friday March 4 from 7pm-7.30pm.

The number of exposure sites and South West COVID case number are expected to increase in the coming days due to WA easing its border restrictions one day before the Labour Day long weekend.

Despite increased visitor numbers in the region, South West businesses prepared themselves for devastating financial losses over the public holiday weekend as venue capacities were slashed as part of the Level 2 restrictions coming into effect on Thursday morning.

As part of the Level 2 restrictions announced by Premier Mark McGowan, venues must follow a 2sqm rule and 150-person capacity limit with seated-only service, while stadium events are to be capped at 50 per cent capacity.